The majority of Austin HVAC systems in residential homes are far more leaky than you might ever think. Whether it’s failed foil tape located at the plenums or unsealed duct connections, the conditioned air you spend and already spent money on has a plethora of escape routes to take.
Duct leaks aren’t something you want in Austin Tx.
If you’re paying hard-earned money to cool or heat air in your home, then you want it to run as effectively and efficiently as possible. Leaks don’t make that easy. As a matter of fact, they make the task downright impossible. For us, getting ducts sealed is all we’re about! Homeowners love our results, and we take genuine pleasure in helping them get there.
Duct sealing offers numerous benefits, but to keep things simple, we’ve boiled it all down to just 5 benefits that should be easy for you to remember. Without further adieu, here they are:
1) Improved Airflow And Comfort:
This might sound like it’s actually two different advantages, but they go hand in hand. Leak ductwork keeps conditioned air from getting to the corners of your Austin home where you really need it. For example, a supply duct that is leaking might not put enough cool air in your living room on a hot summer afternoon. Rather than getting where you want it, that air is leaking right out of your ducts.
What are the consequences of this? You’re too warm to chill out inside, and you might want to turn on a fan. The noise and airflow might be just enough to prevent that siesta or nap you need.
When you get leaks sealed, then more of your conditioned air gets to the parts of your home where it should be going in the first place. When you get more airflow to every corner of your home, then your HVAC system isn’t going to work so hard.
By the way, about overworked HVAC systems…
2) Cheaper Utility Bills:
Ducts that are well-sealed keep conditioned air where it should be, and that’s inside your home. When you keep more conditioned air inside your home, then your HVAC system doesn’t have to work as hard in keeping you and your family comfortable. Eventually, you’ll wind up shelling out less money for a similar comfort level you had prior to duct sealing. In fact, you might even enjoy a higher level of comfort for less money.
If you assume that a less-strained HVAC system should last you longer, then you’re quite right. When you get your ducts sealed, you’re probably going to make your system have a longer service lifespan.
3) Healthier Indoor Air:
Return ductwork leaks can pull dirty air not just into your home’s HVAC system but also right into your home itself. If you have an air handler or blower in your attic, then a leaky return is likely going to circulate that attic air into your living spaces. If your unit is down in a crawlspace, then you might be breathing crawlspace air.
Crawlspace and attic air anywhere in Texas can get pretty stale, and the only times you really want to even sniff it is when you’re getting the holiday decorations out. This isn’t air you want to be inhaling around the clock.
One interesting fact is that a leaky supply duct can actually have a negative influence on air quality. Since leaking ducts lower how much airflow is getting to particular rooms (refer to point #1), the impacted rooms are going to have negative pressure. That means that more air infiltrates from outside of your home. In time, you might wind up inhaling more pollen, dirt, dust, and other atmospheric pollutants, and you’ll be feeling a bit uncomfortable the whole time anyway from insufficient airflow.
Duct sealing can prevent both situations, meaning your home’s air stays clean and pristine.
4) Evaporator Coil Will Be Cleaner:
So, you know so far that return ducts that are leaking can put attic or crawlspace air into your home’s HVAC system. That dirt and dust and any other particulates in that air might just wind up accumulating on the evaporator coil in your system. If you’ve been in Austin more than half a year, you’ve figured out that those of us in the area tend to run AC nearly all year long, which keeps us comfortable (hopefully), but also means that our evaporator coils are constantly wet. Dirty, wet coils are festivals for microbes.
The risk here is microbial growth on your evaporator coil. It’s not good for your health, and it also just smells really bad.
An effective air filter blocks out many of these particulates from even getting to your coil, but there’s no filter that gets them all. Also, if your filter isn’t located perfectly inside your return ductwork, then quite a bit of air might bypass it and get to the coil. Given how much substandard HVAC design has happened over the years, this particular issue happens a lot more than you might think. This is why leaking ducts can frequently result in dirty coils even if you have a good air filter.
If this is a possibility in your home, then you need an HVAC professional to clean your evaporator coil. Duct sealing, on the other hand, can help avoid gunk accumulation on your coil to start with.
5) Identify Other Ductwork Issues:
One annoying thing about most ductwork problems is that they’re rarely alone. On top of leaking ducts, your home’s HVAC system might be ailing from problems such as:
- Ducts that are disconnected, damaged, bent, or sagging
- Improperly designed ducts that aren’t moving enough air
- Supply or return plenums that aren’t big enough
- Non/under-insulated ducts that lose heat during the winter but gain heat during the summer
When you pick an industry professional for duct analysis, you’ll hopefully have someone that identifies leakage areas while also letting you know about other issues that are negatively impact home’s energy use and your own personal comfort. For instance, a duct system that isn’t insulated, too small, and designed badly can result in multiple comfort and HVAC issues. Based on how bad things have gotten, your system might not actually be worth even sealing up!
Eventually, you should get ductwork enhancements that don’t just address problems but actually solve them. Sealing up your existing ductwork is often a good way to accomplish this. However, you might have other issues that need to be dealt with first.
Did we happen to mention that we do duct sealing in Austin metro?
Here at Stellrr, we strive to minimize duct leakage for Austin, Texas homeowners.